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| Nikon D750, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 2500, ƒ/10, 1/50 |
This last shooting assignment I have given my class this week is to take a studio strobe out and make a photo where this complements the light already in the scene.
Before they shot in the field, I did two different shoots. Here is the second shoot I did with them, where we left the classroom, and I showed them how to talk to folks and get them to pose for an environmental photograph. So again, this is an environment that tells us something about the person.
Here we see the guy doing his job as a barista at the local coffee shop.
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| Nikon D750, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 2500, ƒ/10, 1/60 |
I first made this photo of him working and showed it to the class. I showed them the light on the subject and didn’t make him pop. Then, as he continued to work, I took another photo with the studio strobe to make him pop.
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| Nikon D750, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 2500, ƒ/10, 1/60 |
The setup was like this for the shot:
I put a 10º Grid and a neutral density filter on the flash, which was still pretty bright. I used the grid to keep the light from spreading everywhere and lighting up the scene too much.
Then I just had him turn to face the camera for the first photo.
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| Nikon D750, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 100, ƒ/4, 1/500 |
We heard sawing nearby, so we checked it out and saw if we could get another person in their work environment. Here is the first photo.
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| Nikon D750, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 100, ƒ/11, 1/80 |
After adding the flash, I took this photo and adjusted the shutter speed to where I didn’t blow the background away.
When I first talked about the assignment, we walked outside the studio, and I took these photos to give them a sense of it.
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| Nikon D750, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 100, ƒ/10, 1/250 |
After making this photo, I then added a flash.
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| Nikon D750, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 100, ƒ/10, 1/250 |
Then I added a CTO Gel, an orange-colored gel, to the light. I then took a custom white balance and reshot the photo.
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| Nikon D750, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 100, ƒ/22, 1/250 |
I also underexposed the background by 1 1/2 stop by turning the strobe up in power but keeping everything else the same. Unfortunately, this adjustment meant I had to close down the aperture from ƒ/10 to ƒ/22. The change made the background darker since the light didn’t affect it.
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| Nikon D750, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 100, ƒ/18, 1/250 |
I then added a CTB to the light and did a custom white balance. The background went orange with a blue gel on the flash and corrected the white balance to give a good skin tone.
Make this your assignment as well. Here are the directions that I gave to the class:
LightingMixed Lighting This assignment aims to demonstrate that when you are out of the studio, you can use your strobes to improve an otherwise dismal situation. Whatever you choose, you must provide two photos.
- Photo without strobes. In other words, your subject needs light to make it look better. You want to make this the best exposed as possibly you can do. (the same as with strobes)
- Photo with the strobes.
Some Blog Posts to help get your juices flowing and walk you through the steps:
Super Simple off-camera flash portrait
Tips for Off Camera Flash for +/- exposure problems
Off-camera flash and gels for the sky
Grading:
- 20% for proper exposure
- 20% for focus
- 20% Showing rules of composition
- 20% Demonstrating each technique
- 20% for expression